Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy...

[Tennesseer]

Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory

In Pittsburgh, Memphis and Los Angeles, massive billboards recently popped up declaring, “Birds Aren’t Real.”

On Instagram and TikTok, Birds Aren’t Real accounts have racked up hundreds of thousands of followers, and YouTube videos about it have gone viral.

Last month, Birds Aren’t Real adherents even protested outside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco to demand that the company change its bird logo.

The events were all connected by a Gen Z-fueled conspiracy theory, which posits that birds don’t exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. Hundreds of thousands of young people have joined the movement, wearing Birds Aren’t Real T-shirts, swarming rallies and spreading the slogan.

It might smack of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by an elite cabal of child-trafficking Democrats. Except that the creator of Birds Aren’t Real and the movement’s followers are in on a joke: They know that birds are, in fact, real and that their theory is made up.

What Birds Aren’t Real truly is, they say, is a parody social movement with a purpose. In a post-truth world dominated by online conspiracy theories, young people have coalesced around the effort to thumb their nose at, fight and poke fun at misinformation. It’s Gen Z’s attempt to upend the rabbit hole with absurdism.

“It’s a way to combat troubles in the world that you don’t really have other ways of combating,” said Claire Chronis, 22, a Birds Aren’t Real organizer in Pittsburgh. “My favorite way to describe the organization is fighting lunacy with lunacy.”

Complete article here: Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

So like the Flying Spaghetti noodle monster?  I like it it.   

How do I get a T shirt?

[Tiny]

And a good example of Poe's law:

Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, every parody of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied.

Cause in this day and age maybe people could and do believe that birds aren't real.

[Tiny]

I get a kind of "War of the Worlds" 1938 broadcast feel from this... The audience for the broadcast (and possible most Americans at that time) was primed and ready to go - "invasion" and "aliens" and "war" were popular topics in books and magazines... and the format of the radio show almost completely mimicked an actual news broadcast...


what happens when the people primed to believe whatever they hear from a source they believe is trusted a carefully worded tweet or instagram or facebook or faux news story - start thinking their local birds are spying on them?

[Opti]

Dec 9, 2021 13:30:59 GMT -5 Tiny said:

I get a kind of "War of the Worlds" 1938 broadcast feel from this... The audience for the broadcast (and possible most Americans at that time) was primed and ready to go - "invasion" and "aliens" and "war" were popular topics in books and magazines... and the format of the radio show almost completely mimicked an actual news broadcast...


what happens when the people primed to believe whatever they hear from a source they believe is trusted a carefully worded tweet or instagram or facebook or faux news story - start thinking their local birds are spying on them?

I am a little concerned about that as well. I don't see any ridiculous theory jolting people out of the ones they believe. They might choose to believe this one and start killing birds. I wish they had made something up about inanimate objects, like the cardboard roll inside TP.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Dec 9, 2021 13:20:11 GMT -5 Tiny said:

And a good example of Poe's law:

Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, every parody of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied.

Cause in this day and age maybe people could and do believe that birds aren't real.

Maybe there aren't birds. I mean if birds existed and we all know the world is flat shouldn't the birds fly off the edge into space?  Eventually becoming extinct?

So yep clearly drones to lure us into believing the world is round.

[dondub]

Dec 9, 2021 13:20:11 GMT -5 Tiny said:

And a good example of Poe's law:

Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, every parody of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied.

Cause in this day and age maybe people could and do believe that birds aren't real.

Yesterday my car said they are real.😳

[teen persuasion]

Dec 9, 2021 13:40:44 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Dec 9, 2021 13:20:11 GMT -5 Tiny said:

And a good example of Poe's law:

Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, every parody of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the views being parodied.

Cause in this day and age maybe people could and do believe that birds aren't real.

Maybe there aren't birds. I mean if birds existed and we all know the world is flat shouldn't the birds fly off the edge into space?  Eventually becoming extinct?

So yep clearly drones to lure us into believing the world is round.

And the bird/drones sit on power lines to recharge.  It makes sense, in an ironic kind of way.

As my youngest gen Z kid explained, it's not that birds NEVER existed, it's that they've been slowly replaced by drones over time.  So we don't know which ones are real birds and which are drones spying on us.

 It suddenly makes much more sense why we've had a series of cardinals who would daily tap at our bedroom windows, over and over and over and ...

[busymom]

Unfortunately, once the founder announces that "birds really ARE real", there will be those who will claim the government MADE him say that.  We really need an IQ test in this country, or a way to separate those out who are easily duped.  

[haapai]

Part of me wants the t-shirt too.  Another part of me thinks that the world does not need more snark and cryptic, pointed in-jokes right now. 

[azucena]

I don't want to live in a post-truth world.

[happyhoix]

Reminds me a little of the Billionaires for Bush groups that would show up in evening wear at Bush rallies.

They also got mistaken for being real, sometimes.

Kind of expected them to show back up for Trump.

[Deleted]

Well, according to a couple of conspiracy theorists that I know, we probably aren’t even real. We and what we perceive as our lives, are possibly just part of a computer program. I got stuck on that part every time, so I don’t know the details. It boggles my mind that I happen to know 2 people that seriously entertain that thought and shared their thoughts with me, since I’m pretty sure they’ve never discussed it with each other.

As if people really thinking birds aren’t real isn’t bad enough.

[tallguy]

Dec 9, 2021 14:09:44 GMT -5 busymom said:

Unfortunately, once the founder announces that "birds really ARE real", there will be those who will claim the government MADE him say that.  We really need an IQ test in this country, or a way to separate those out who are easily duped.  

We had one.  It was called the 2020 presidential election.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

As the mother of millenials and one Gen Z-er, I've known about this theory for awhile. They find it quite amusing. My daughter does have one fo the shirts. They make references to the theory sometimes too. 

[Tennesseer]

Dec 9, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

Well, according to a couple of conspiracy theorists that I know, we probably aren’t even real. We and what we perceive as our lives, are possibly just part of a computer program. I got stuck on that part every time, so I don’t know the details. It boggles my mind that I happen to know 2 people that seriously entertain that thought and shared their thoughts with me, since I’m pretty sure they’ve never discussed it with each other.

As if people really thinking birds aren’t real isn’t bad enough.

I have always thought (laughingly) we humans are some kid from another time and dimension's Ant Farm school project. Every once in a while the kid shakes it up for shits and giggles.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

[Tiny]

Dec 9, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5 @pinkcshmere said:

Well, according to a couple of conspiracy theorists that I know, we probably aren’t even real. We and what we perceive as our lives, are possibly just part of a computer program. I got stuck on that part every time, so I don’t know the details. It boggles my mind that I happen to know 2 people that seriously entertain that thought and shared their thoughts with me, since I’m pretty sure they’ve never discussed it with each other.

As if people really thinking birds aren’t real isn’t bad enough

A possible explanation for the 2 people sharing a "weird" idea" 

I hear they are rebooting or making a sequel to The Matrix (which uses the "we're part of a "simulation" - like living in a virtual computer generated world.). And The Matrix touches on a bunch of philosophical ideas.  So, the idea the two people are entertaining has popped up again in "pop culture". 

One of the many philosophical references in the Matrix is the "simulation hypothesis: 

One of the most overt philosophical references occurs near the beginning of The Matrix when Neo stashes his illegal software inside a hollowed-out copy of a book by French postmodern philosopher Jean Baudrillard entitled Simulacra and Simulation.

But it also references Socrates "Shadows on the Cave Wall" and there's another couple of philosopers who have pondered how we experience the world/ourselves and what exactly what being "conscious" is and what it means. Where do we go when we fall asleep? for example.

Don't take this personally or as an attack on the 2 people you know (I'm playing with a "Matrix" inspired thought stream:

So, either the two people are unaware of the philosophical stuff the matrix is playing with and just getting the "philosopy-lite" info from the internet memes and or equally unknowing friends repeating internet memes (ala Jean Baudrillard hee hee hee) - OR - they actually have an interest in philosophy and have found that very few other people share that interest (at their level) in real life so they've boiled down the philosophical content to "meme" level. hee hee hee. So your friends might be cleverly intelligent and cool or just repeating back internet drivel. hee hee hee.

I love the Matrix (that why I have the quote about Baudrillard's book - I want to read it) and I love to skim the ocean of Philosophical knowledge that humanity has collected.

The Matrix (along with some other movies/books I read at the time) sent me down the philosophy rabbit hole and I've never regretted it!